Welcome to Professional and Technical Services (PTS) – experts in chemical disinfection for infection prevention. Our goal is to educate and provide you the latest resources related to cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces, medical devices and hands. As specialists in disinfectant chemistries, microbiology, environmental cleaning and disinfection, facility assessments and policy and procedure creation we are dedicated to helping any person or facility who uses chemical disinfectants.

Friday, December 22, 2017

I know its cliché, but where did the year go? Children are counting the minutes until
school is let out for holidays; parents, friends and families are making plans
to celebrate the ups and downs of 2017 and I am only 5 months away from being
another year older… As I reflect back
on the year I am thankful to you, my loyal followers. I was astounded to realize that over the
course of the last 12 months almost 31,000 emails have been sent to readers
around the world and the I am humbled that in the clutter of our inbox, so many
of you have chosen to open and read the blog!

Each year, as I look back on the topics covered, it never
ceases to amaze me everything that has happened during the year when it comes
to topics related to cleaning and disinfection and infection prevention. From outbreaks, to new reservoirs being
identified as sources of infection transmission, to new science being published
to support the importance of cleaning and disinfection or data highlighting
that while cleaners and disinfectants are an important part of stopping
infections we also need to be wary that some are now proving to be harmful to
us and/or our environment.

What is also interesting (and rewarding) is to see that the
blogs that made the top of the list in terms of the greatest number of
followers reading them, were also varied in the topic covered. The following are the top Talk Clean To Me
blogs for 2017:

Friday, December 15, 2017

Today I just had to tap out and admit I needed a day at home
to rest. I’ve been fighting a cold for
over a week. It started to hit me Sunday,
when I had a 2 day committee meeting….with a group of Infection Preventionists
(Sorry if I made anyone sick!). ‘Tis the
season for colds and flus – it is what it is and actually I’m pretty happy that
I made it almost to Christmas before catching something.

This morning, while relaxing, I caught up on some reading
and low and behold I came across a study that made me chuckle. The timing of course with being sick couldn’t
have been better! I came across an
article “The science behind
man-flu” by Dr. Kyle Sue from
the University of Alberta that explored whether men are wimps or just
immunologically inferior. OMG! Who hasn’t mocked their spouse, partner,
brother, father, friend or co-worker for being a baby when sick!

Across the ages, women have often been called the fairer sex. It’s a stereotype that is hard to escape. In trying to understand this association, scientists
have shown that we automatically link lighter or fairer colours with female
names and qualities, and darker shades with more masculine attributes. How
then is it that when it comes to getting sick, women handle it better than
men? According to the Oxford Dictionary,
“man-flu” is defined as
"a cold or similar minor ailment as experienced by a man who is regarded
as exaggerating the severity of the symptoms." Sue conducted a
literature review to determine if men really experience worse symptoms then
women and whether this difference has any evolutionary basis. One study Sue referenced isolated cells from
63 healthy people and infected the cells with a common virus. The
researchers found the cells from women had a stronger immune response than
those from men. Some of the other
interesting tidbits included the fact that men had a higher risk of hospital
admission with the flu, men had higher rates of flu-associated deaths compared
to women, women are more responsive to vaccination than men and while perhaps
one of the least scientific supported evidence, a survey found that men
suffering from a flu reported taking more time off from work than women.

The things that make you go hmmm….. I guess it’s true that estrogen does have its
advantages from time to time! Too bad it let me down this week, but it gives me
the opportunity to drink a hot-toddy
before bed!

Friday, December 8, 2017

I think I can say with some confidence that it is very rare that
cleaning can lead to infections. I am
aware of a study from many moons ago where a facility found that surfaces
cleaned by a particular cleaner were dirtier after cleaning took place. The reason? In order to be more efficient, the
housekeeper would set up their cart the night before, and to minimize waste,
topped up rather than getting fresh disinfectant solution.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to
travel to some extent, and visit a number of different countries. Along my travels I have noticed that some
areas are dirtier than others. I have
also noted that some areas of the world go so far as to clean their streets
each night to keep the dirt at bay – I happen to know that Bourbon Street in
New Orleans is frequently cleaned…..but dirt is not really the issue
there. In general, I would say that street
cleaning is a good thing. It keeps dirt
at bay, but it also removes food scraps that could become a food source for
insects or rodents. For obvious reasons, cleaning gives a pretty good
impression to those who may be new to a given city. It never occurred to me that street cleaning
could be an infection hazard.

I now fear that street cleaning trucks may become
categorized in the same league as hand dryers for me thanks to a study published in Emerging Infectious Diseases by
researchers from Spain. The study
investigated a case of Legionnaires’ disease that had been confirmed at a
street cleaning company that reported a similar case 4 years prior. The long and the short of it is that
researchers felt that the infections were caused by contaminated water tanks
used by the trucks during street cleaning concluding that Legionella was being
aerosolized through the high-pressure hoses used to clean the streets.

Legionella
loves water, so it’s not necessarily surprising that it would be found in the
street cleaning trucks. During the investigation
the researchers found that the water from the street cleaning trucks was
disposed of each night and refilled the next day with either untreated ground
water or drinking water. The tanks were disinfected once/year for 2hrs with a chlorine-based
solution. However, the foam linings in
the tanks were never replaced and did not dry out overnight creating a perfect
reservoir for Legionella to flourish. As
a result of the investigation, street workers are now required to wear masks
during tasks that could lead to potential exposure. The internal foam pieces
were removed from the trucks and stricter water treatment measures were put in
place.

In the end, cleaning and disinfection is important to
minimize the chance that Legionella can take hold and cause chaos. The upside of studies such as this is that it
shows you just never know where the next reservoir for Legionella or any
pathogen for that matter may be found.
It’s easy to let our guard down during quiet times….but that always
seems to be when the next opportunistic infectious agent crops up and wreaks
havoc! Cleaning saves lives and I guess
as this study shows, effective cleaning and disinfection protocols are needed
everywhere!

Friday, December 1, 2017

Prior
to entering the infection prevention world, I worked for almost a decade in a
laboratory where we tested water, soil, waste water, air, and food, among other
things. My focus and expertise were in
the Environmental Division where we dealt with contaminated sites (water and
soil testing), drinking water analysis, etc.
My least favorite project was measuring, weighing, filleting and
dissecting >200 fish in order to test for dioxin
and other chemicals of concern. It was
stinky and after the first night, the 2 college students who were supposed to
help never came back….

S.
maltophilia is an
emerging global multidrug-resistant opportunistic bacterial pathogen that is
being found both in healthcare facilities and the community. Similar to many
emerging pathogens, it is of particular concern for immunocompromised
individuals as this pathogen is associated with a significant mortality. S. maltophilia is an
environmental bacterium found in aqueous habitats, including plants, animals,
foods, and water sources that has the ability to cause infections in a range of
organs and tissues but is most commonly associated with in respiratory tract
infections.

The researchers found
that of the 360 samples taken, the majority of the environmental isolates were
found in sink drains, drinking water and tap water. Of particular interest was the frequency of
positive samples found from bottled water, which the researchers speculate
could have resulted due to poor management of hygiene during the production of
the bottle water. They also found
positive samples from the machine filtered water which also highlights the
importance of ensuring there is a preventative maintenance and monitoring
program in place for on-site filtered water production.

My interest for
this was of course the contamination in bottled water. We’ve become accustomed to grabbing bottles
of water and most incorrectly believe that bottled water is safer than tap
water. In some countries, without a
doubt this could be true. However, in
other countries, very strict regulations are in place to ensure that municipal
water is of the highest quality and safety.
The dirty truth is that bottled water manufacturers do not have to
conduct much in the way of testing to ensure their product is as safe as the
water coming out of our taps.

As with any study
looking at the environment, it is both interesting and scary to learn about new
emerging pathogens we need to be on the lookout for and of course the surfaces
and areas we need to be particularly vigilant with.